The Watchmen Trailer debuted on day two of the 2019 San Diego Comic Con. This trailer featured familiar faces like Hooded Justice, while also revealing that there is more than one Rorschach and a reason why the police now wear masks.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yKq1PRvPJQ?controls=0&w=560&h=315]
The hooded figure wearing a hangman’s noose for a necktie crashes through a storefront window and the pacing never lets up. Following this action sequence and a line of dialogue — “Who am I? If I knew the answer to that, I wouldn’t be wearing this mask,” — are glimpses into the first of many mysteries. In addition there are a few answers.
It is ten years after the events that ended the original Watchmen story by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Adrian Veldt is believed dead. But the world is still afraid.
Masking Fear
For the most part police officers are afraid of vigilantes. The police are unnerved by a video message featuring a team or gang wearing the mask made famous by the original Rorschach. A coordinated series of attacks on Tulsa, Oklahoma police includes the home invasion of officer Angela Abrahams played by Regina King. Consequently King and others choose to wear masks that hide their identities in an attempt to protect their families.
Manhattan on Mars
Dr. Manhattan is a popular folk hero depicted at a fair or event held in his honor. Even a wizened Louis Gossett, Jr. makes the claim that he could be Dr. Manhattan. Satellite images show a blue man on mars stirring clouds of red dust. In the final scene of the trailer a figure wearing black slacks and matching dress shoes stops beside a Dr. Manhattan mask left on the street. A blue hand reaches down and plucks the mask from among the discarded decorations.
The Details
Watchmen is directed by Damon Lindelof and will be available from HBO in October 2019. The series stars King, Gossett Jr., Don Johnson, Jeremy Irons, Jean Smart, Tim Blake Nelson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Hong Chau, Andrew Howard, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, and James Wolk.
